Caetano Veloso in Concert Friday, November 2 - Orpheum Theatre Boston

HT Productions will present Caetano Veloso Friday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre [1 Hamilton Place, Boston, MA 02108]. Tickets at $49.00 (Golden Circle), $43.00, and $31.00 (prices include $1.00 Orpheum restoration fee) will be on sale as of Monday, September 10 at the Orpheum Box Office [10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Mon - Sat], all Ticketmaster locations, on line at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 617/508-931-2000. For more information, call: (617) 482-0650.

Caetano Veloso is one of the greatest songwriters of the century: a master melodist, a lyricist who merges surreal imagery with a sense of history and a sense of humor, a singer whose voice radiates tenderness and supple swing and a musician who connects to traditional music, pop and jazz from all over." -- The New York Times

Caetano Veloso's newest CD, ce, was released by Nonesuch Records on January 23, 2007. The record includes twelve original songs by Veloso (vocals, nylon and steel guitars), who recorded them in the spring and summer of 2006 with a rock band of younger musicians: Pedro S (electric guitar), Ricardo Dias Gomes (bass, Rhodes piano), and Marcelo Callado (drums); it was produced by S and Moreno Veloso. Additionally, Pedro's brother, Jonas S, sings guest vocals on one track. (c was released in Brazil in the fall of 2006.)

Pedro S and Moreno are my sons - the latter, biologically speaking, and both in the familiar sense of the term," Veloso says. They are both in their 30s, have a vivid relationship with the routes taken by musical taste in the last decades -- as well as making remarkable personal interventions on the direction of these routes. Ricardo Dias Gomes and Marcello Callado are in their 20s. It was Pedro who suggested their names when he heard my themes and my ideas. Our communication was so clear that in a few minutes of rehearsal, the tracks were ready to be recorded. All of them. Not even one got stuck. We recorded everything on two-inch tape, without Pro Tools."

He continues, c is not a rock album like the ones I listen to and that interest me: the songs are mine, my voice is still the same, my hair is grayer than it is black, less curly and always shorter than when it was really long -- or longer than when I decided to wear it short."

Caetano Veloso is among the most influential and beloved artists to emerge from Brazil. Known there since the 1960's, Veloso has made more than thirty recordings to date and has developed a strong international following.

Born in Santo Amaro, Bahia, in 1942, Caetano Veloso began his professional musical career in 1965 in Sao Paulo. In his first compositions he drew on the bossa novas of Joao Gilberto, but rapidly began to develop his own distinctive style. Absorbing musical and aesthetic ideas from sources as diverse as The Beatles, concrete poetry, the French Dadaists and the Brazilian modernist poets of the 1920s, Caetano, together with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, his sister Maria Bethania, and a number of other poets and intellectuals, founded a movement called Tropicalismo. By experimenting with new sounds and words, adding electric guitars to their bands and utilizing the imagery of modern poetry, Caetano became a musical revolutionary.

This short-lived movement, founded in 1968, ended abruptly when Caetano and Gil were sent into exile and lived in London. Now universally credited with redefining what is known as Brazilian music, it laid the groundwork for a renaissance of Brazilian popular music both at home and abroad. Caetano and Gil returned to Brazil in 1972 and found that Tropicalismo had remained intact and their audience had continued to grow.

Although Tropicalismo set the tone for Caetano's career, his music has evolved greatly over the years. Incorporating elements of rock, reggae, fado, tango, samba canao, baiao and rap -- with lyrics containing some of the best poetry in a musical tradition rich in verse -- Caetano's music is sometimes traditional, sometimes contemporary, often hybrid. At once an astute social commentator and balladeer of highly emotive love songs, Caetano is one of the most respected poets in the Portuguese language. Indeed he is one of only a handful of artists who has resolved how to be musically modern and still undeniably Brazilian.

Veloso followed his 1999 Grammy Award Winning Nonesuch release Livro, an album which garnered widespread critical acclaim in the US and brought with it his first-ever US tour, with a soundtrack for the Carlos Diegues film Orfeu.

In spring 2001 Nonesuch released Noites do Norte (Nights of the North), a meditation on themes of race, slavery and Brazil's quest for a national identity. Caetano's release, Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta, is a live recording made in 1997 in Rimini in honor of two masters of Italian cinema, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina.

Caetano's long-awaited memoir, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil,was published by Knopf in Fall 2002, alongside the release of a 2-CD set, Live in Bahia,signaling a period of unprecedented activity in the U.S.

His first album sung entirely in English, A Foreign Sound (released in 2004)was a culmination of Veloso's long-standing and multifarious exploration of American music. Surprising and imaginative interpretations of American songs have been a staple of his recent live shows, and they have made occasional appearances on his studio albums over the years. As he explains in his acclaimed memoir, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil, he came to some of his favorite American singers and musicians -- including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and the Modern Jazz Quartet--by tracing the steps of his foremost musical hero, Joao Gilberto. On A Foreign Sound, Veloso interprets several songs he first learned listening to these artists in the early 1960s, including So In Love," Love for Sale," Manhattan," and Body and Soul." Other songs have particular significance in the context of Brazilian culture.

I grew up listening to my father's jazz records and listening to the radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy

I grew up listening to my father's jazz records and listening to the radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy. So music and jazz specifically have been a part of me since I was born. I love and perform in all styles of music from around the world. Improvisation in jazz is what drew me in, and still does as well as other genres that feature improvisation. A group of great musicians expressing themselves as one is the hallmark of great jazz and in fact all great music.